Whack-a-Mole

[tmcg]

Returning after this past month away from here, I feel that I should come bearing rants and linkage. To be honest, I felt disheartened about ranting here, and to some extent still do; despite the disaster after the disaster, I can't help feeling that all will be forgotten by election time, and that the polarization in this country is severe enough and laminated enough that nothing can penetrate it. Seeing no point in passing this disheartenment along, I drifted away. Will try to stay returned for a while and see how it goes.

On Primary Tuesday, twenty minutes before the polls closed, I was the ninetieth person in my district to vote. When I came up to the table, one of the women said, "We've got a live one!" I got the feeling they'd been sitting for some time without much to do.

My cool-word find of last month was "kayakathon." It's probably in poor taste now, but it's a great word.

Oh, and LJ had neither of my high schools listed in its new Schools userinfo thing, so I went ahead and added one of them. It would feel odd to run into a classmate here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Welcome back.

[ogre-san.livejournal.com]

That was from me, btw. Forgot to log in. :)

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Thanks. For the welcome and the ID. I'm pretty good at figuring out who Anonymous people are (when they're people I know), but two words was a strain of my abilities. *g*

I'm glad (that's an understatement) that you and the family in LA are okay. I did check in online to make sure, but I was slapdash about leaving "whew" messages, for which I apologize.

[ogre-san.livejournal.com]

Near miss. In MS, not LA. Far enough inland not to get blown away by hurricanes... usually. This one made a good try.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know where--was just phrasing vaguely because it looked like your family posts were locked. :) Still relieved; it was too close.

[akaspeedo.livejournal.com]

You're alive! *g*.

I kept thinking about calling, and then figured you must be busy and didn't want to bother you. I finished my course, finally. Just waiting to hear about my final grade.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

It's been stupid-busy, mostly, and I miss you, and you can always call. CONGRATS!!!!!!!!! on finishing the course! You so rock!

[akaspeedo.livejournal.com]

Thanks, it took me long enough. Now I get to tackle the job market ;)

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, the fun part. At least it'll be different from pure coursework!

[piratelady.livejournal.com]

Glad you're back. I need more interesting reading. And speaking of that.. when is the next book due out. I'm hooked and jonesing for more triad adventure.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Ooh, almost perfect timing! The next book is in fact called Triad, and it's out in about a month. Thanks for asking and yay for jonesing. :)

[janni.livejournal.com]

I've linked to my college but not yet my high school ... haven't decided whether I'm willing to be found by classmates at the latter or not yet. :-)

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

I vacillated on that too, and then thought what the heck. I was more reluctant to be the pathetic lonely only journal listed for the school I just added, but then stevendj went one better by adding the first school for an entire country, so I went for it.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

Budapest Semesters in Mathematics is actually one of four schools listed for Hungary. No way to tell if it was the first one submitted or not.

None of the other three have an English name.

There are four people on LJ who claim to have attended BSM, including a sixteen-year-old girl who also claims to have attended Hogwarts, and someone even less plausible.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Hmpf.

And they slipped Hogwarts in. I guess that's not a huge surprise.

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

Welcome back, been wondering what you were up to.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've been catching up on your journal, and enjoying the entries. It was sort of an odd summer here, but I'm hoping fall will bring a crisp fresh revitalizing wind. :)

[cardigirl.livejournal.com]

Glad to see your phosphors onscreen again; you've been missed. Can't say as how I'd like any of my old schoolmates finding me -- I didn't miss 'em when they were gone (or when we were under the same schoolroof, for that matter). *shrug* Different strokes.

As for "forgotten by election time" ... yeah, discouragement here too. I saw a t-shirt the other day with Munch's Scream and the tag "Three More Years!" which I thought was mighty fitting.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Very fitting shirt. I'm partial to The Scream myself *g*, and that's an appropriate application of it.

Just spent the afternoon with a junior-high/high-school friend, and at one point found myself describing LJ to her and thought how odd it felt--two worlds intersecting that I don't ordinarily expect to.

It's good to see your phosphors too. :)

[cardigirl.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of us respond too well to The Scream. I also have a copy of the vinyl blowup doll of your icon; in my case, it sits over my desk.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Cool! Great place for it. Mine sprang one too many leaks and is in a temporarily deflated state till I can properly patch it. Which is probably symbolic or significant somehow. *g* (The little blowup alien that sits on his head is doing fine, but misses his perch.)